Fractured wrist sidelines Curtis Mead and leaves Red Sox without the newly acquired slugger indefinitely
WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. — One game later, Curtis Mead’s Red Sox tenure is paused indefinitely.
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The infielder suffered a fractured left wrist, the team learned Tuesday, when he was hit by a pitch during his team debut Monday against the Athletics — a brutal blow after the Sox acquired him from the Nationals over the weekend for lefthander Connelly Early.
“You could tell he was excited to be here, you could tell the guys embraced him, and we were ready to kind of live life with him in the lineup,” interim manager Chad Tracy said before the series continued Tuesday night. “And then that happens to him.”
Said Mead: “Challenging. Super disappointing. It kind of doesn’t feel real that it [was the] first game. There’ll be a break in between the next one.”
The Red Sox still are gathering information about the extent of the injury, including how long Mead might be out of the lineup. He was due to take a red-eye flight back to Boston and see a hand specialist Wednesday.
Mead said “I hope” to play again this season and that he is “not totally sure right now” if surgery is a possibility, deferring on such topics until learning more.
So, is it possible this is a season-ending injury?
“It’s hard to say,” Tracy said. “It’s [difficult] to pin down exactly right now until he sees the specialist and sees exactly what’s going on with it. . . . All we know right now is he can’t play right now, and then we’ll get him home to see the specialist, and then we’ll be able to see.”
Although the Sox had not yet formally put Mead on the injured list as of Tuesday evening, infielder Nick Sogard was on his way from Triple-A Worcester to join the club. Sogard will be available beginning Wednesday, Tracy said.
In his debut with the Red Sox, Mead, batting second and playing second base, struck out in in the first inning. When he stepped to the plate again in the fourth inning, Athletics righthander Jack Perkins threw a 95-m.p.h. fastball up and in, catching Mead on the wrist of his bottom hand.
Mead stayed in the game for an inning but, unable to swing a bat, let Tracy and the staff know he could not continue.
X-rays were negative, leading the Red Sox to describe his injury initially as a contusion. But after Monday’s win, Tracy hedged in his assessment: “At least right now, it looks like we dodged a bullet maybe.”
Mead woke up Tuesday feeling no better, so the Sox sent him for additional testing, which is standard procedure with possible fractures. An MRI revealed more than a bruise.
“I woke up pretty stiff and sore,” Mead said. “When I woke up [Tuesday] and it didn’t feel a whole lot better, it felt like [an MRI] was the best next step. … I don’t know the nuts and bolts of it, but should find all of that out hopefully in the next coming days.”
Tracy noted that Mead probably also will get a CT scan “to get even a closer look and get a better idea of how long it might take.”
In Mead’s sudden and extended absence, Tracy kept at least one element of the newcomer-induced changes — for another game. Willson Contreras, Wilyer Abreu, and Ceddanne Rafaela stayed in the Nos. 3-5 spots in the lineup.
“With this happening, we’ll reevaluate, especially against righties, if we want to switch it back around,” Tracy said.
Romy Gonzalez batted second (and played second base) against Athletics lefthander Gage Jump. Moving forward, Tracy plans to mix and match in the middle infield with Andruw Monasterio, Anthony Seigler, Gonzalez, and Sogard.
However long he is out, it is a difficult twist of fate for Mead, a former high-end prospect who at age 25 was having a breakout season, slashing .253/.353/.498 with 17 home runs and 48 RBIs.
And for the Red Sox, it erased — for a period — what was supposed to be a significant offensive upgrade.
“More than anything, you feel for him, having to go through that,” Tracy said. “But [he is] a player that we should have for a while, so that’s the important thing, to get him healthy and get him back.”
Story not ready for rehab assignment
Elsewhere on the beleaguered middle infield depth chart: Trevor Story is “still progressing nicely,” Tracy said, but the shortstop is not close to a minor league rehabilitation assignment.
Story is about 10 weeks removed from surgery to repair a sports hernia. He said shortly after the operation that doctors told him it usually takes eight to 12 weeks to return; he is on pace to be out take longer than that timetable.
“Still working through a lot of the quick motion lateral movement stuff,” Tracy said. “And then once he gets through that and starts to have confidence in that, that’s when we’d start talking about a rehab. So not yet.”
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